Car Show to benefit Wounded Warrior Project

Saturday

Cars, trucks and bikes will once again line Main Street during the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce's 15th Annual Car, Truck and Bike Show.

Cars, trucks and bikes will once again line Main Street during the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce's 15th Annual Car, Truck and Bike Show.

The show is planned for Sept. 21 and will be held rain or shine.

"This is the 15th annual and we wanted it to be special and be a charity everyone could relate to whether old soldiers or new," said Committee Member Marilyn Roberts. "We all have contacts with veterans and warriors."

Because of this, the committee chose the Wounded Warrior Project as the sponsored charity to which they will donate a portion of the proceeds.

Choosing a sponsored charity was something they started last year with the goal of helping out others.

The Wounded Warrior Project's mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors by fostering the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in the nation's history.

Their purpose includes:

• to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members.

• to help injured service members aid and assist each other.

• to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members.

Wounded Warrior Project began when several veterans and friends, moved by stories of the first wounded service members returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq, took action to help others in need. What started as a desire to provide comfort items to wounded service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has grown into a holistic rehabilitative effort to assist warriors with visible and invisible wounds as they recover and transition back to civilian life. Tens of thousands of Wounded Warriors, family members and caregivers receive support each year through WWP programs.

Along the lines of recognizing veterans, the car show will begin with the National Anthem sung by Anna Esparza from the Christian Motorcycle Association, during which they will ask all veterans to gather at Main and Central to be recognized. Following the Anthem, there will be a fly-over by the Commemorative Air Force.

"We're trying to go as military and veteran as we can this year," said Committee Member Deb Ward, who is the Ambassador chair for the chamber.

They also will be selling t-shirts with the Wounded Warrior logo on them.

"The more t-shirt sales and money raised the more it will increase our donation to the Wounded Warrior Project," said Committee Chair Ross Stumpf.

They also will be doing drawings with several big ticket items to raise money, as well as a 50-50 pot.

One new thing for this year's show will be that the judges will all be from out of town. There also will be more motorcycle classes in the show, as well as no parking in the center of the street.

Classes will include Pre-1939, 1940-1949, 1950-1954, 1955-1959, 1960-1964, 1965-1969, 1970-1974, 1975-1979, 1980-1995, 1996-current, LX/LY platform, import, Mopar modified, GM modified, Ford modified, 4x4, 4x4 modified, street rod, rat rod, sport compact, unfinished, age 23 and under, truck, Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, Firebird and special interest. Motorcycle classes will include cruiser, sport, antique, rat, custom, chopper and trike. Other awards will be given for best paint, best interior, best engine, best of show 1979 and older, best of show 1980 and newer, club award, furthest distance driven, people's choice awards, best of paint-bike and best of show-bike.

Registration is from noon to 3 p.m. the day of the show and the first 125 to register will get a goodie bag. Registration is $20. Awards will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Special events will include a motor blow and car bash. There also will be a variety of vendors.

The deejay for the event will be Marvin Ranich and 107.9 will do a live broadcast from the event for a couple of hours.

The two presenting sponsors for the show are Eclipse Medical and Scholfield Auto Plaza, as well as many sponsors from around town.